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Title: Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin ISBN: 0-440-33007-6 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 10 November, 1985 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.59 (56 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Redemption, Flaws and All
Comment: The great truth of the Christian faith is that you are accepted just as you are... flaws and all.
Many of the great narratives in the bible include flawed but teachable people. From: Adam to Abraham to Jacob to King David, God inspired the writing of these accounts to show us he uses people just as they are and he does the work not us.
This is just the case in James Baldwin's story, Go Tell it on the Mountain.
The main character is John, a young boy just turned 14 struggling to develop his identity and to get to know God.
During the course of the story we see his family history revealed and get to know the truth that his mother and step father are very imperfect people but redeemed nonetheless.
That is what John must come to terms with. Baldwin's rendering of this internal spiritual stuggle is masterful.
The way that Baldwin reveals the truth of the family little by little is extremely well done. This story is short and packed with punch. It is a moving and thought provoking book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Black church affects Black community, for better and worse
Comment: Jesus said, "A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" (Matthew 10:36), and "No prophet is accepted in his hometown" (Luke 4:24).
This idea certainly plays out in the Grimes family of James Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1952). Except for John's mother Elizabeth, the adult Grimeses have no idea that love, familial love, is supposed to include favor (not favoritism like the father Gabriel's), the idea of blessing each other with good words, good will, and heartfelt affection. Unfortunately, the novel's Black Christians' idea of goodness and holiness is colored by the master's idea of a good slave: docile, acquiescent, submissive, silent in the face of abuse, always needing to prove your worth. "Blessed Assurance" isn't one of their songs.
"Go Tell" presents not only the story of John's 14th birthday, but the past stories of Elizabeth, Gabriel, and Aunt Florence. Whereas Gabriel's spiritual journey--if you can call it that--at about age 21 is born of desperation and remorse after much self-abuse and self-indulgence, John's spiritual journey on his 14th birthday is one of insight and refuge after much abuse and neglect. Gabriel indulges and denies his dark side, projecting his evil onto others. John wonders over his own evil thoughts, seeking to reconcile his light and dark sides.
John's family and people have been cursed by the white-oriented world, and by a false interpretation of the scripture, namely the curse of Noah upon Canaan. Believing this curse, Gabriel in turn, without meaning to, curses his children. Will any of the Grimes family truly experience being, like Israel, heirs to the promises of God, as well as heirs to the world's persecution and heartache?
John perceives that Gabriel, or some unacknowledged dark part of Gabriel, would rather see him damned than saved, would rather keep John as a bastard child, "son of the slave woman", as someone to look down upon--similar to the cutting attitude that Gabriel and his sister Florence have toward each other. However, John, born in New York City, a generation removed from Jim Crow, just might become the first person in his family to start to throw off the reproach of Egypt (see Joshua 5:9)--that is, of slavery. That is, if his anger and hatred don't overtake him first.
"Go Tell" is an excellent exploration of how the "Black church" has both upheld and held back African-Americans through slavery, Jim Crow, the Northern migration, and racism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Really good
Comment: For a first novel- this is an outstanding piece of work. I watched a PBS special on Baldwin & then went to the library (how marketing works!) He was a novelist I was familiar with but had never read. The lyricism in this book is great- very poetic and descriptive (like when John talks about sweeping the rug, only to have the dust return). I tend to hate religious overtones in books because I hate religion, esp Christianity, but I could deal with it in this book because it was so well written. I do agree that all the religion in the middle of the book weighed it down considerably (much like it did in THE CHOSEN) but I recommend this and I'm eager to read other Baldwin works!
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Title: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin ISBN: 067974472X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison ISBN: 0679732764 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Another Country by James Baldwin ISBN: 0679744711 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060931418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin ISBN: 0385334583 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 13 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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